Last week, before this weekend's April heat wave (80 + degrees!) we were still in winter gear. Gotta love this high desert weather. Hard to think looking at these photos that we went swimming today! Anyway, while over at my mom's house I decided to walk the kids over to visit my old stomping grounds and childhood architecture: the treehouse.
The memories came flooding back of the great times all of us kids climbed around like a band of monkeys without a care in the world. I recalled all the fun little games we played. One included,
"Ghostwriters." based off a popular kid's program that we used to watch in the 1990's. Or we would just play cowboys. lol . Even though we had some favorite programs, we didn't grow up watching that much TV. We spent more time outdoors pounding the ground with our shoes or pounding nails into these trees. We put a great deal of sweat, blood, tears, and time into this project. Of course we'd had practice from when we lived at Eskdale ~ where we had built one of our first really cool treehouses. The treehouse grew larger along with our ideas and imaginations........
How would it be to go back into time and be a kid again? To have little or no responsibilities? The only decision you had to make for the day is what nails to use on the treehouse? lol
It feels like yesterday that we were racing each other to the windbreak ready to hammer in new ideas that we stewed in from the night before. We didn't just build a treehouse. We built a structure of memories.
I carefully climbed up the old rickety boards and stood at the top. I decided it needed many improvements. This was definately a skeleton of a treehouse. I climbed back down.
I noticed someone else had a watchful eye on the place: a great horned owl! She was sitting in her nest looking like she had some wise comments for us. lol
I was also thinking how I wish I had my big lens on my camera ;)
We found some other
skeletons that day! Ava learned about owl pellets :)
Even Isaac was hands on with nature :)
The visit made me think about
time. Precious time. I want my kids to enjoy the freedom of their childhood. It's hard to watch them grow up so fast. I know that I can help by giving them the opportunity to explore and have adventures. I want them to play for a living before they grow up and work for a living.
At times, it reminds me that
I can play like a kid again :)
I pulled out this poem I wrote back in 1999, consisting of little childhood memories. It's pretty random (in no particular order) and quite cheezy:
"Childhood Flashbacks"
Snake Valley; to most, a place unknown,
Not many people, you don't know,
Small social fishbowl,
Words & actions become exposed,
Desert ocean.... stay afloat!
Hot summers; cold winters,
Electric lightening, lashing thunder,
Moody, unpredictable patterns in weather,
Striking rainbows kiss the earth,
Sunsets paint the skies,
Midnight satallites, shooting stars,
Scent of sagebrush after rain,
Healthy, fresh, crisp, clean air,
Diurnal, Nocturnal, watchful eyes,
Geysers in the desert consist of dust,
Eyes deceived......from a mirage,
Egyptian Head, Black Mountain, Crystal Peak,
Warm Springs trickle through a cave,
Secret treasures; Shhhhhh.... only whispered,
Rattle, rattle, rattle at a sink hole,
Knoll Springs goldfish swim in a trough,
Golden eagles study your move,
Horny toads rest in the palm of my hand,
Laughing and hiding in fields of alfalfa,
Riding horseback; mane tangled in my fingers,
Racing stinkbugs in the sand,
Childhood flashbacks; cherished memories,
My first love ~ a cat named "Spice."
Sinking to my knees in cotton seed,
Bonfire ashes blow across the salt flat,
Notes passed around in class,
Building teepees, forts, and huts,
Tadpoles escape from in between our fingers,
Cat-face spiders in treehouse windows,
Riding a holstein cow named "Utah"
Riding in a wagon, pulled by John Deere,
Throwing the ball and yelling "Annie!"
Flipping through the air above an octagon trampoline,
Holding my nose at a cow graveyard,
Searching the hill for arrowheads,
My feathered friends: "Gretel, Peaka, Sherlock, and Wade,"
Long evening walks around the windbreak,
Ice skating up a frozen wash,
Learning how to drive a car named "Peachy."
Music from orchestra and choir,
Getting a flat tire in Conger Pass,
Sun-kissed shoulders at the gravel pit,
Shooting holes in cans with a bb gun,
Collecting feathers to place in my hair,
Summers spent with naked feet,
And the grasp of many bird's feet around my finger,
Lived, laughed, and loved;
I think, I ponder, I wonder still ~
about the time capsule we buried in the sand..........
